After finishing the hardware cloth flooring, Mr. Man began to measure boards to begin the roof. The view on this particular day was spectacular. The trees and clouds weren't too bad either!
I honestly don't know how he did it. Not the nailing the boards part, but the figuring and measuring and making it all, well, roof-like. I looked at the notes he'd made, and he explained it to me, but all I heard was, "Math, math, math. Blah, blah, blah. Nails." There was only one thing I understood.
Needless to say, once the day was out, he'd made the roof joists. Or frames. Or whatever it is called when you put up some boards, all at the same angle, and then lay the roofing materials on it.
We were able to salvage some metal roofing materials that were left on our property (sometimes it does pay to buy from, uh, less than organized or let's-not-clean-up-after-we're-done-with-a-project type people!) in order to make the roof. Add to that some other metal bits that were around the house and property and we had a water tight roof!
Then came the time to get all the boards onto the walls. This was the most laborious part of the job (as if all the rest of it has been a cake walk!) as it entailed milling out each. and. every. board. for the entire stinkin' thing!
So, Mr. Man milled as fast as his saw could go, and I measured, cut, and nailed the boards to the coop. If I remember correctly, this process took over two days.
Once the boards weathered on the coop, they shrunk a bit. (First time homesteader note: allow boards to dry after milling before using them in a project.) The kids and the Mr. used a spray can of insulating foam to fill the holes. Once dried, I used a small saw to trim off any extra gooshing bits.
Then came the run. Oh, the run! Sounded pretty easy. Put up some posts. Wrap chicken wire around said posts. Wah-lah! Chicken run. Um, nope. First, we had to dig down into the hard packed soil. AGAIN with the pick axe!! Because we didn't want varmints to dig under the run fencing, we pick axed (shudder) down about 18 inches and sunk more hardware cloth down and out at a 90 degree angle to the fence.
Then, we easy peasy lemon squeezy hung/wrapped/wrestled the chicken wire onto the posts. Funny thing: When you measure for the length of wire you'll need for your fence, it might be a good idea to take into account you'll need extra to go around the posts, or you'll find yourself "sewing" together scraps to finish said fence. True story.
Mr. Man made a beautiful run gate out of wood scraps and chicken wire, complete with a gate latch and an "Oh, Stinker! I just locked myself in the run!" escape lever.
And then, one day later, our chickens arrived at their new home. But, you'll have to wait for another post to hear more about them!
P.S. Know that if you come to visit, we will most likely put you to work. No one is immune. Shortly after we finished the coop, my mom came for a visit and spent the better part of two days helping me prime and paint the coop!
Missed the first two parts of The Poultry Palace? No worries!
